Pelosi, Boehner fight over scope of ‘stolen vote’ probe

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) are heading toward a clash over the size and scope of a special investigation into a controversial vote last month that Republicans are calling “the stolen vote.”

{mosads}In a letter to Pelosi Friday, Boehner asked for $1 million for professional investigative staff, consultants and other expenses. He also asked for an expansion of the probe to include “exceedingly controversial events in the House that occurred in close succession in early August,” such as the malfunction of the automatic voting system and alterations of the Congressional Record.

Pelosi made clear to Boehner two days earlier that she was in no mood for swelling the investigation into mini Watergate hearings. 

“There is no reason for this review to become protracted as the committee’s charge is limited to a very small number of matters,” Pelosi wrote in a terse letter to Boehner Wednesday.

Boehner, however, sees the matter differently.

“Madame Speaker, our votes in the House are cast on behalf of the American people — and public confidence in the integrity of the legislative actions in the House can only be restored by fully and aggressively investigating the circumstances surrounding each of these deeply disturbing events,” wrote Boehner. “Simply put, the Select Committee must follow the evidence wherever it leads — and it must have all the tools necessary to complete that critically important task.”

The investigation stems from a rancorous dispute over a vote on an amendment to the agriculture appropriations bill during a late evening in early August.

Rep. Mike McNulty (D-N.Y.), who was presiding in the Speaker’s chair during the vote, declared the Republican amendment failed on a 214-214 deadlock even though the electronic tally board in the chamber showed the amendment winning by a margin of 215-213 when he gaveled the vote to a close.

Republicans protested bitterly and ultimately stormed out of the chamber in protest, unappeased by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) offer to reconsider the motion, which sought to prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits.

Republicans were further incensed when they discovered the next day that the record of the controversial vote had been erased. That same day the automatic voting system broke down, suspending legislative operations for three hours. Democratic aides said that a power cord for the system had been unplugged, suggesting a disgruntled Republican had sabotaged it in protest. Republicans, however, offered their own theories for the breakdown, hypothesizing that Democrats meddling with electronic records had caused the glitch.

In the wake of the McNulty controversy, Hoyer tried to sooth Republicans by offering a resolution asking the ethics committee to probe the vote. Republicans rejected that proposal and agree instead to create a special panel for the same purpose.

This past week, leaders named the panel’s membership. Pelosi appointed Reps. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D-S.D.) and Artur Davis (D-Ala.) while Boehner tapped Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), and Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.).

In his letter, Boehner said the panel should review more than the vote itself.

He wants it to probe the three-hour shutdown of the automatic voting system, portions of the Congressional Record that were “altered substantially in a manner wholly inconsistent with the actual debate,” and taped recordings showing “the Speaker Pro Tempore declining to recognize a Member on his feet actively seeking to exercise his right under House Rules to propound a point of order.”

Leaders have set a deadline of Sept. 30 for the select committee to make an initial report to the House.